In the 911 call from the day 8-year-old Leila Fowler was stabbed to death, her father's girlfriend, who was not home, didn't appear to know that Leila had been hurt. She told the operator Leila was "freaking out" after her brother said he had allegedly seen an intruder in the house.

The brother has since been arrested and charged with second-degree murder with special circumstances for using a dangerous weapon in the crime. His name has not been released since he is a minor.

He was arraigned today and appeared in court with chains around his waist, according to ABC News' Sacramento affiliate KXTV. He was asked several times by the judge if he understood the charges against him and he answered, "Yes," each time.

The judge announced at the end of the hearing that the boy would remain in custody, KXTV reported.

On April 27, Leila's 12-year-old brother told Valley Springs, Calif., authorities that he found his sister stabbed to death after an intruder broke into their home. There were no adults at the house when the stabbing occurred. The boy said he called his parents, who alerted sheriff's deputies.

"My children are at home alone and a man just ran out of my house. My older son was in the bathroom and my daughter started screaming," the panicked woman said in the 911 call released by the Calaveras County Sheriff's Office. "When he came out, there was a man outside my house. I need an officer there."

When the dispatcher asked if the children had seen the intruder, the woman said, "They did see him. My daughter is freaking out right now."

She also said the children were "really scared" and that she was trying to get home.

The boy told authorities the intruder, whom he described as a tall man with a muscular build, fled the scene. The boy's description launched a 15-day manhunt that included door-to-door searches and divers in a reservoir.

The Calaveras County Sheriff's Office in Northern California announced the arrest of the 12-year-old boy on May 10.

On Monday the boy's father, Barney Fowler, told The Associated Press that his family is standing behind the boy "until they have the proper evidence to show it's my son."

Mark Reichel and Steve Plesser, attorneys from a firm hired by the boy's family to represent him, told KXTV that they met with him today at a juvenile detention facility.

"He's actually doing very well right now," Plesser said. "As well as can be expected in these really difficult times."

The two attorneys said they plan to ask the court to allow the boy to return to his family.

Neighbors in Valley Springs said they feared all along that Leila's brother -- not a mystery man the boy described -- might be responsible for the girl's stabbing death.

"It made us sadder, because he's just 12 years old," Barbara Barron told ABCNews.com. "The family has lost two children now."